As the weather begins to cool in Australia, this is exactly the kind of dessert that starts to make sense again.
Warm fruit. Cinnamon. Butter. Caramel. Ice cream melting gently over the top. It’s simple, comforting, and just indulgent enough without being difficult.
For this Cooks Collective What’s in Season recipe, we’re using Envy apples, a beautifully crisp, naturally sweet apple developed in New Zealand as a cross between Royal Gala and Braeburn. The Envy apple is the trademarked name for the Scilate apple variety, and its Royal Gala and Braeburn parentage is part of what gives it that lovely balance of sweetness, crunch and aromatic flavour.
The Envy apples we’re featuring here are grown on the Granite Belt in Queensland, one of our wonderful cool-climate growing regions.
This dish sits somewhere between a classic baked apple and an apple crumble. You get the soft, warm apple base, the spiced fruit filling, and then a golden crumb topping for texture.
Rather than peeling the apples, we’re leaving the skin on. The skin provides the perfect base to help the apple retain its shape as the fruit softens, and you also get the bonus of extra fibre.
Then we give it a little Underground Chef pantry twist with Lupins for Life Lupin Crumb, Island Harvest Salted Caramel Sauce, and a scoop of Kapiti Vanilla Ice Cream to finish.
Simple. Seasonal. Comforting. And just a little bit special.
Membership Level: Cooks Collective
Series: What’s in Season
Serves: 4
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 15 minutes
Appliance Used: Air fryer
Temperature: 185°C
No problem. You can still make this recipe in a standard oven.
Place the filled apple halves into a small baking dish and bake at 180°C fan-forced or 190°C conventional for approximately 20–25 minutes, or until the apples have softened and the crumb topping is golden.
If the topping is browning too quickly before the apple has softened, loosely cover the dish with foil for part of the cooking time, then remove the foil for the final few minutes to let the topping crisp up.
The oven may take a little longer than the Ninja or air fryer, but the result will still be beautiful. You’re looking for the apple to be tender but still holding its shape, with the filling warm and the crumb topping golden.
This recipe is a great example of how a good pantry product can do more than one job.
Lupins for Life Lupin Crumb gives the apples a golden crumble-style topping, while Island Harvest Salted Caramel Sauce turns a simple seasonal fruit dessert into something that feels café-worthy.
This is the Underground Chef pantry approach — ingredients that are useful, flexible, and earn their place in your kitchen.
Leaving the skin on the apple is more than just a time-saver.
It helps the apple hold its shape while cooking, giving you a perfect little base as the fruit softens. You still get the comfort of a baked apple and the texture of an apple crumble, but without the apple collapsing completely.
The skin also adds extra fibre, which is a nice bonus in a dessert like this.
The Lupin Crumb gives the topping a lovely golden texture and shows another way to use a pantry product beyond its obvious purpose. This is the kind of ingredient we love at Underground Chef — something that earns its place because it can work across more than one style of cooking.
This dish works because it gives you the best of two familiar desserts: the warmth and softness of a baked apple, with the golden topping and texture of an apple crumble.
The Envy apple brings natural sweetness, crunch and aroma. The raisins and currants add depth. The almonds give texture. The cinnamon brings warmth. The butter and caster sugar help the lupin crumb become golden.
To finish, the salted caramel sauce adds a rich, slightly salty sweetness that works beautifully with the vanilla ice cream.
It’s a simple dessert, but it feels like something special.
Serve the apples warm, straight from the air fryer, with the salted caramel sauce poured over just before serving.
For a relaxed family-style dessert, place the apples on a platter and let everyone add their own scoop of ice cream.
For a more café-style finish, place one apple half in a bowl, drizzle the caramel sauce around the base, and sit the vanilla ice cream beside it so it slowly melts into the warm apple.
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Baked apples are one of those simple dishes that remind us good cooking doesn’t need to be complicated.
Start with beautiful seasonal fruit, add a few pantry staples, use the right technique, and you’ve got a dessert that feels generous, comforting and satisfying.
This is what Cooks Collective is all about — helping you look at everyday ingredients a little differently and giving you the confidence to turn them into something worth sharing.